New Voice Assistant Issue

I've run into a Voice Assistant Issue I haven't seen reported before. I'm using a Venu 2 Plus with a Pixel 7 Pro, and the Voice Assistant on the watch is usually able to connect when I trigger it, but about half the time Google Assistant won't activate. The watch shows the microphone icon like it's supposed to, but instead of Assistant appearing on my phone, the screen will just flash black for a second. The phone shows the little green microphone icon at the top of the screen, but I get no response from Assistant.

Has anyone else run into this? I've already tried rebooting the phone and watch, removing/re-pairing the watch, and even factory resetting the watch, but it doesn't make a difference.

I'm running Android 14 on the phone and 17.04 on the watch.

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0 Scott 11 months ago

Yes, I've been seeing this for a while now, both on my Pixel 7 Pro and Pixel 8 Pro. Don't know a workaround, just waiting for Garmin to address it.

0 J Kingsbury 11 months ago

Same on my Pixel 7a - I keep having to reconnect the Assistant

0 2249581 11 months ago

I found a sort of workaround - it seems that even when Google Assistant doesn't pop up, the phone will still be connected to the microphone on the watch. So if I say "Hey Google" into the watch, Assistant will trigger after that. This is still something that Garmin needs to fix though.

0 Al P 11 months ago in reply to 2249581

This does not work for me. Garmin-Inder is there a thread for the ongoing Assistant issues where we give permission to email, etc. and Garmin is working on them?

0 J Kingsbury 11 months ago

I'm not sure if my issue was slightly different but I've had to enable Assistant on lock screen and this solved my connection issues.

0 2249581 11 months ago in reply to J Kingsbury

I already had Assistant enabled on the lock screen, so I think yours is a different issue.

0 Al P 11 months ago in reply to 2249581

I also have it enabled on lock screen. I have a mix-n-match of issues. Sometimes the phone (Pixel Fold) lights up and Assistant shows up on the screen. Then when I give a command sometimes nothing happens, sometimes there is a response that you can barely hear (reported in other threads). Other times the watch spins, nothing happens on the phone and then the normal watch face comes back. Other times the phone lights up, assistant shows on the phone but the assistant does not hear anything and goes away without responding.

0 2249581 8 months ago

I'm back with an update - since I installed the February 5, 2024 security update on my Pixel 7 Pro, my Voice Assistant connectivity has dramatically improved. The watch now connects about 95% of the time, and I've not had the flashing black screen on my phone at all.

0 Al P 8 months ago in reply to 2249581

That is good to hear. Unfortunately my Pixel Fold which has the same update will only connect if I uninstall the Google app updates and reboot the phone. Then every night the Google app automatically updates and I have to uninstall again in the AM.

0 2249581 7 months ago in reply to 2249581

Unfortunately, subsequent updates seem to have broken this again. I'm back to Assistant working properly maybe 30% of the time.